Analysis of Kaisarion
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
Partly to throw light on a certain period,
partly to kill an hour or two,
last night I picked up and read
a volume of inscriptions about the Ptolemies.
The lavish praise and flattery are much the same
for each of them. All are brilliant,
glorious, mighty, benevolent;
everything they undertake is full of wisdom.
As for the women of their line, the Berenices and Cleopatras,
they too, all of them, are marvelous.
When I'd verified the facts I wanted
I would have put the book away had not a brief
insignificant mention of King Kaisarion
suddenly caught my eye...
And there you were with your indefinable charm.
Because we know
so little about you from history,
I could fashion you more freely in my mind.
I made you good-looking and sensitive.
My art gives your face
a dreamy, an appealing beauty.
And so completely did I imagine you
that late last night,
as my lamp went out—I let it go out on purpose—
it seemed you came into my room,
it seemed you stood there in front of me, looking just as you would have
in conquered Alexandria,
pale and weary, ideal in your grief,
still hoping they might take pity on you,
those scum who whispered: "Too many Caesars."
Scheme | ABXCXDDXCC AEFX XFGXXCGBXCXXXEBC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 101111010100 101111011 1111101 01010100101 010101001101 11111110 100100100 1011011110 110101110101 111111100 111001110 111101011101 010010111 100111 011011001001 0111 1100111100 11101110011 1111100100 11111 010101010 01010110101 1111 1111111111110 11110111 1111101111011111 0100100 101001011 1101111011 1111011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,144 |
Words | 214 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 4, 16 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 304 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 70 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 443 Views
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"Kaisarion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7184/kaisarion>.
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